First and foremost I’d like to apologize for not being more diligent about my entries. I understand that there are those of you who live in remote regions of the world and depend on my words to keep you company during the long, sunless winter days. I can only suggest: read very, very slowly. That way you won’t feel the sting so badly when I fail to blog about the goings-on of the Frontalot tour bus.
And much has been going on! The remainder of our time in the Rock House was spent getting out of the hair of the band that rehearsed there. What did we do? We went to the mall! I bought shorts and flip-flops for next to nothing at Sears. Man is that place cheap! Then we went to see the remake of “Clash of the Titans” in 3d. Not the Avatar-style 3D, mind you, but the red-and-blue kind. Our verdict? Ease your storm and skip it. It was so bad that Front reimbursed us our ticket money in beer the next night.
The next day if was off to Charlotte where we played the Milestone, a club with graffitti on every square inch of wall. This particular club is noteworthy for two reasons: firstly, R.E.M. leader Michael Stipe wrote “R.E.M.” in big letters on the wall right behind the stage; secondly, nerdcore star MC Lars wrote “Nerdcore Rising” right on top of that very piece of historical scrawling. Behold the photographic evidence. All of the acts that night were top-notch: KbaZ, The Thought Criminals and Quantum Foundry. There was even a big on-stage jam where everyone freestyled and the chorus was “MC Frontalot ain’t nothing to fuck with.“ Mayhap the Wu-Tang Clan has an opening?
Our hosts that night were Melody and Mike, a lovely couple who graciously put us up in their home so as to avoid having to stay in a very sketchy motel near the Milestone. Melody made us gumbo! It was delicious. Thank you Mike and Melody!
We then hopped in the van to do two shows in the lovely state of Georgia. The first was at an awesome music store in Atlanta called Earthshaking Music, which has a sweet performance space (and recording studio!) in the back of the store. The show was a blast, and for the first time ever I was asked to sign lots of autographs. If only this would happen when I tour as myself! Big ups to John Benjamin, master of the Songfight universe, for putting the show together and housing us for 3 nights in the ATL. Also due for a shout-out is his lovely wife Dorie, who not only put up with our raggamuffin selves but went so far as to cook for us and be an all-around awesome hostess. John and Dorie – you rock!
On the subject of Atlanta – I had expected it to be an urban wasteland. I was mistaken. It is a lovely city, with great record stores and restaurants and music venues and weather. If you ever go there, I highly suggest the Five Points district.
We left for Athens on Monday afternoon, where we played a show at the legendary 40 Watt Club, which by the way is the first picture to show up on Wikipedia’s entry for the Athens music scene. Score! Truth be told the venue was too big for us – the Arctic Monkeys played there just a week earlier – but it was a real treat to have a dedicated monitor engineer and not one, not two, but three separate green rooms and two private bathrooms. Underutilization never felt so opulent. The show itself went very well, depsite over-eager and highly intoxicated concert-goers in the front who “helped” us open our water bottles. I even got cornered by three fans, one of whom had looked up my solo stuff. When informed that “The End of Suffering” was “mellow” I promptly directed him to Edible Norris. Incidentally: we’re playing at the Cafe du Nord on May 4 with Brandon and Front. Our first show ever! Buy tickets here.
After the show we had another bizarre Waffle House experience, wherein the waitress liked us so much that she gave us all extra food without charging us. Honestly, I didn’t want a waffle – all I ordered was a sausage egg and cheese biscuit – but what can you do? Feed it to Sturgis! The man apparently teleports food back to his home planet from inside his stomach. Either that or he’s full of tapeworms. It should be noted that her kindness was potentially based on Brandon’s legal advice regarding a restaurant owner’s right to deduct from her wages the costs of any broken dishware. He told her that it was illegal for the owner to do it. Apparently he was right. However, BINAL.
As of now we’re on the road to Gainesville, Florida – home of NAACP poster-boys Lynyrd Skynyrd – where we’re going to rock the Laboratory this evening. Be there! If you live in Gainesville.
Comments are closed.